MCModerns Hooked on Art

Christianna and Michael Cohen playfully place a new framed
print in their Walnut Creek Eichler.
(photo: David Toerge)

It can start as a whim, even a foolish whim—your first purchase of art, the start of a new life as an art collector. Collecting art can range from a light-hearted venture, bringing some color into the home, to an endeavor that takes over your life.

Consider Judy and Steve Lipson, who have given into their collection so much that, when they moved to Berkeley, they had a modern house designed specifically for artwork, with niches, indirect sky-lighting, and storage.

Collectors say that modern homes, overabundance of glass notwithstanding, make particularly fine art galleries, thanks to their good light, clean lines, and roominess.

Whether they collect paintings, prints, pots or photographs, what unites all true collectors is a personal relation to the art itself—not to the name of the artist, nor to the dollar value of the art, and certainly not to any anticipated growth in that value.

“I have to look at it every day and feel that I love it,” Eichler owner Hilary Somers says of the art she buys.

Read our entire feature on ‘modern art collectors’ in this sneak preview of the new summer ’13 issue of CA-Modern magazine, ‘Taking the Plunge.’